Our garden route tour didn't start well. Firstly we nearly missed our pickup, the tour wasnt actually provided by the company we bought it from, in fact there are a while mess of nested companies. As a result they didn't tell us our pickup time, they only told us it would be between 7am and 9am. At 6:50am ten minutes before we were ready the pickup guy was about to leave because our hostel, where we'd stayed four nights had no record of us. Sigh.
But we didn't miss it! We got to Hermanus, a prime whale spotting venue at 9am. This was just too late to go shark cage diving, our agent screwed us again.... But early enough to wait three hours for those that did go shark cage diving. Also it was the wrong season for whale watching so we watched where the whales would be. But weren't.
Moaning over this tour was great. Hermanus is a beautiful sleepy town with great views and nice market stalls for buying trinkets. We have absolutely no room in our packs so are quite immune to buying trinkets. They also had a life size (ish?) whale model on the waterfront with requisite barbed wire.
Our tour guide Loki was driving us to our next destination when we passed through a massive cloud of smoke, only one of two dangerous road incidents we'd come across on this tour. The fire was very fast and we were glad to get through it before it closed the road.
Now it was time for our lion walk. We were each handed a thick and dense stick and told to stand behind it if the lions came towards us. You can imagine how reassuring that was. There were two lionesses, with one being the old hand at the walks and the other being in training. They were both well trained and at times they showed their displeasure at how long they had to sit while we had our pictures taken with them.
I feel torn about things like these as wild animals should be allowed to be wild in an ideal world. The animal visits we did on this trip styled themselves as sanctuaries and the animals didn't appear drugged or mistreated.
That aside we survived our lion walk to enjoy beer and pizza in the sleepy town of Sedgefield.
I took a morning run around a local lake or lagoon and it was beautiful and send very safe. I somewhat regretted the morning run later as these tour days tend to be long and busy so i was tired!
This morning we were going to some caves with the option to do a more adventurous tour squeezing through gaps in the rock underground. Kirren sensibly decided against this but i was all for it.
The gaps in the rock were very tight and our guide had to talk us through some of the techniques to get through. I'm not a fan of enclosed spaces but thought it would be good to push myself. It was scary but doable and i really enjoyed it. I took our GoPro along to film, but the videos a dark and don't really do justice to squeezing through tight gaps called "the chimney" and "the post box". When we get decent internet I'll add these videos to this post.
For lunch we stopped at an ostrich farm, we didn't see the ostrich farm itself but rather the ostriches. Kirren hates birds and is trying to get over that so had the opportunity to "hug" one. This really meant being tangled in one's neck as it looked for food, Kirren did it, but I'll let the picture so the talking for her mood. Ostrich eggs are extremely strong to resist the weight of their parents sitting on them, i tested this out myself.
Next up Cango Wildlife Ranch, this offers the spectacle of a zoo with the thrills of crocodile cage diving and getting to stroke some of the animals. The crocodile cage diving sounds awesome but looked very boring. The zoo tour was cool, i got to see personal favourites like fruit bats, meerkats, marmasets and lemurs. And Kirren got to see big cats. Our guide Loki made a parrot friend that began pecking his t shirt and angrily pecking him, this was all very amusing. I also got called a sissy by a staff member for choosing to hang out with lemurs instead of the cheetahs Kirren did. I stood behind a stick next to lions the day before, I've nothing to prove!
The guide told us that they were absolutely against canned hunts, where cubs are breed and used to attract tourist for interactions then sold to be shot by rich hunters in unsporting conditions. I'd say hunting lions is okay if it's a fair fight, high powered rifles and drugged animals is horrible.
Anyway, the lemurs didn't even really perceive me as anything more than a climbing frame to get at fruit. It was cool to feel how light they were standing on my hand and see how agile they were.
Kirren loved stroking the cheetahs. The handlers kept trying to get them to play with giant colourful plastic eggs that they apparently loved, they showed no interest in them. Apparently they were hungry for their lunch, i bet Kirren appreciated hearing that down in the cage with them!
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